Spring RTS Engine

I've been thinking about map starting positions. I don't think I've ever seen a game which has started with fixed positions. Its always choose a spot within a box. A box on the top vs a box on the bottom. Or a box on the left vs a box on the right. On any team game of 3 vs 3 or 4 vs 4, the strategy is very predictable. Expand towards the opposing half of the map in a more or less solid mass. There is a subtle variation of trying to get the right pace of expansion - too fast and you overextend, too slow and you give your opponents too much resource. And sometimes you can get really tricky and scout out the enemy line and try and attack in the weakest point along with your allies. But that can be dangerous as you will have weakened yourself in comparison to your direct opponent. He may counter attack, and you may find your allies aren't as interested in playing co-operatively as you are.

Perhaps we can create a new options and add variety. It could be cool to start a 4 vs 4 map with 2 players close to the middle on each side and two players in the back. Then the strategic choices become more interesting. Perhaps the front two dig in and spread out to protect the back two. The back two focus on building a solid level 2 econ as fast as possible with little or no defence, trusting the front two to hold up.

But with two players in the front line, there are more likely to be gaps for an opponent to find and make it through to the back. Do the back two push forward as well to try and make the defensive line really solid? Or do they build a second defensive line in the back 'just in case'. And if they do launch an attack, where should they launch it?

Or what about starting one team in a central position, and starting the other team split between two or more positions either side of this. The central position would have a significant advantage in cohesion, and an ability to move forces quickly from one battlefront to the other as needed. To counter this maybe the map would make the center position more exposed, and the outer positions given more defensive terrain to make both sides equally vulnerable. Or fiddle with the resource placement.

This would either need map designs with appropriately thought out fixed starting positions - does anyone know of any?. (i.e. this thread should be in the map section). Or perhaps options in the lobby to create more than one starting box. For example Team 1 has 2 starting boxes, and must place two players in each box (i.e. this thread should be in game lobby or development?).

And another map strategy issue - maybe someone would be nice to make a map with a few very high value mex spots? For instance 7 mex spots on the map that each produce 5 metal or even 10 metal per tick for a standard mex. The idea would be to have around the same amount of metal available as for a normal map, but to have it concentrate on key strategic locations, and focus the battle on trying to control as many of these locations as possible. Or are there maps already like this that I have yet to play on?

just a thought of me as i read your post...
has anyone ever seen different game modes in rts-games? does it make sense? would it perhaps be interesting to play some kind of capture the flag games or other mission based modes we all know from 3d-shooters?
spring could be an interesting game to test things which "real" publishers would never try cause of economic risc...

I've been thinking about this a lot lately as well. Here's a few random ideas that I've come up with...

In Rise of Nations, there was a 'Barbarians at the Gates' game mode which would put a team of players with a lower tech against fewer or a single player with higher tech levels. As long as it is Arm vs. Core (or whaterver the current mod may have), you can enforce this with unit restrictions. The "Barbarians' can't build Advanced. The higher tech team also gets an economy boost via the handicap system. This is currently playable, although it may rely on the honor system if the teams are not Arm vs. Core.

It would be interesting to be able to tie a mod into the game clock (if you can't already) so that Team A has to destroy/capture/reclaim the _____ within a set timeframe and Team B has to protect it. Although this is currently kind of playable, you lose that satisfaction of the other teams stuff automagically blowing up at the 45 minute mark when they miss their goal.

A mode like Unreal Tournament's Domination would be pretty playable, but probably a bit tougher to implement. Domination plays such that each team tried to hold a number of control points on the map. I could see doing this in Spring by using map features (hell, even a Geo vent) along with a unique structure that can only be built on that feature. Once a team builds on all of them, it is a victory.